Midwives

Our midwifery panel plays a hugely important role in giving us the straight-talking, high-level advice we need to make decisions that affect midwives and mothers right across the UK.

Established in November 2015, the panel meets four times a year and their discussions, debates and decisions are reported to our Council.

All of this work means that the voice of midwifery has a direct impact on the decisions we make.

Read the Midwifery Panel terms of reference to find out more about their purpose.

Previous meetings

Meet the members of the panel

The panel is made up of the Chief Midwifery Officers from the four countries of the UK, the Chief Nursing Officer for England, representatives from the Royal College of Midwives and other leading midwifery figures.

Agnes Agyepong - Lay member, Founder and CEO of Global Black Maternal Health Institute

Angela Graves - Council of Deans of Health representative, Head of the School of Healthcare, University of Leeds

Anna van der Gaag - Midwifery Panel Chair

Cath Broderick - Lay member, Independent Consultant in Patient and Public Engagement at We Consult

Caroline Keown – Chief Midwifery Officer, Department of Health for Northern Ireland (NI)

Gill Walton - Chief Executive, Royal College of Midwives

Gloria Rowland - Chief Nursing Officer of African Medical Centre of Excellence

Gwendolen Bradshaw - Emeritus Professor, University of Bradford

Jacqui Williams - Senior Midwifery Education Advisor, Nursing and Midwifery Council

Janaki Mahadevan - Co-CEO of Birthrights

Janice Sigsworth - Director of Nursing at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Justine Craig - Chief Midwifery Officer for Scotland

Kate Brintworth - Chief Midwifery Officer for NHS England

Karen Jewell - Chief Midwifery Officer, Welsh Government

Kerri Eilersten-Feeney - Lead Midwife, NHS England

Maria Pollard - Deputy Director, Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals Directorate, NHS Scotland

Mary Renfrew - Professor Emerita, University of Dundee

Natalie Whyte - Services User Representative, National Maternity Voices, Midlands

Nicky Clark - Chair of Lead Midwife for Education Strategic Reference Group, Head of department for Midwifery and Child Health, University of Hull

Ruth May - Chief Nursing Officer for England

Sascha Wells-Munro - Deputy Chief Midwifery Officer, NHS England

Shanthi Gunesekera - Co-CEO of Birthrights

Tracey MacCormack -  National Maternity Improvement Adviser, NHS England

Verena Wallace - Senior Midwifery Adviser (Policy), Nursing and Midwifery Council

Wendy Olayiwola - National Maternity Lead for Equality, NHS England and NHS Improvement

NMC Membership policy summary

This policy is aimed at anyone who is currently involved or is seeking to be involved in one of the NMC’s engagement groups. It does not apply to NMC employees, any of the NMC’s governing bodies, Council, committees or panels as defined in our rules or to contractors who support the delivery of NMC operations. The NMC is committed to ensuring that the membership of our engagement groups reflects the nursing, nursing associate and midwifery professions and the communities they support across the UK’s four nations. We recognise our responsibility to reach out to a diverse range of external partners and the value that comes from hearing from a broad range of people.

We are also committed to upholding our public sector equality duty as part of the Equality Act 2010 (and our applicable equality duties in Northern Ireland) by integrating consideration of equality into how we establish and operate engagement groups. The NMC’s values are to be fair, kind, ambitious and collaborative. These values are at the core of the experience we want people to consistently receive when they join our groups and this policy has been written in line with them.

Read the Membership policy summary

Payment and expenses policy

This document explains why, when and how we pay expenses and involvement payments to members of the public and others who get involved with our work. It is in three sections; a policy for out of pocket expenses, a policy for involvement payment and a list of resources which may be helpful.

The document is aimed at people who are involved with us as part of one of our strategic groups or other engagement initiatives, and whose expenses for participating are not covered in another way, such as by an employer or another organisation they work with.

Read the payment and expenses policy